Thursday, February 23, 2006

Went to Foxwoods and stayed overnight on the 19th (Sunday…the most crowded weekend in the history of Foxwoods) in the Grand Pequot Tower…20th floor. It was a nice room…right on the opposite side of the elevator. The only problem was that everybody else in the Northeast decided to go down to the casino at the same time. I wanted to play some Black Jack and of course Poker. The Black Jack tables were so packed that you had to wait 2 hours just to get to a 25.00 bet table…not me. I would have to say the ratio of tables for Black Jack was 75% 50.00-bet and 25% 25.00-bet. I couldn’t believe it…. so I left my buddy in the 25.00-bet tables to go to spend the majority of my time in the Poker room. I lost about 100.00 on the craps table on the way over to the poker room because it was the only table open under the price of 25.00 dollars a bet. (Stick with poker Dave…stick with Poker).

I’ve never seen a casino so crowded…people get crazy during these long weekends. On my way to the Poker room I saw two children fending for themselves outside the entrance of the casino while their parents stayed inside for who-knows how long. I love the casino trips as much as the next guy but I felt bad enough to tell the security guard. The two children were a 6-7 year old girl trying to keep her little 2-3 year old brother entertained…she was visibly mad/frustrated. The security guard did nothing…. I just don’t get it…people shouldn’t have kids if they can’t baby-sit or get a baby-sitter to watch them. Anyway, I at least told the security guard and that was the best thing I could do.

The Poker room was also packed but the wait wasn’t nearly as bad as the other tables. I decided to put my name in on a 1-2 NL table while I played an ACT I tourney. I placed 3rd in chips in the ACT I (NL STT), which is good enough to get a$150.00 buy-in to an ACT II. I had to wait until 10:00AM the next morning to get into that one. They start running the ACT tourneys at 10:00AM-12:00AM every day. So after placing 3rd out of ten and getting my voucher or lammer to the ACT II I went over to the board to see if my 1-2 NL table place was ready. I guess it was about 12:30 at that point. Some guy had the same initials as me in different order (DDP) mine are (DPD) and he was supposed to be first a the table. I pretended to be confused about the situation and the guy bumped me to the top of the list…score! It probably would have taken 2 hours to get on a table if I didn’t do that.

I get to the table and there seems to be a couple of guys that were there for a week straight. The table had from left to right is a cast of characters. To my left was an Orthodox Jewish guy…(not sure about the denomination but he had a yamika on, and a bunch of his friends were scattered through the poker room…high-fiving each other…. I have nothing against anybody but it looked kind of funny to see them really getting into it) every time someone bet he called all the way to the river. After he called all the way to the river he would muck his cards and wave his hand and mutter something like “take it”. Next to him was a couple of young newbies…. aggressive until you played back at them. Next to them was an Indian guy that I put all-in and I had his A-Qo beat. I rivered a boat with my two pair 10’s full of 8’s. He re-bought and became more aggressive as the night went on. Next to him was another young newbie who lost all his chips by going all-in with mediocre hands. He soon lost his chips and left. Next to him was this monster of a guy (Pauly as his buddy next to me called him…looked like the ‘Big-Show’ professional wrestler…he must have easily weighed at least 4-bills and was 6 and half feet tall…he also had tattoos all over his neck) who was obviously a semi-pro or someone who has been weathered by way too many hours at the poker table. Next to him was….somebody who I can’t remember….obviously he wasn’t too active on the table. Next to him was another young newbie with shades on….almost all of the newbies had there Oakley’s on…except for one. I got into it with him when I had pocket J’s. I bet he raised…I re-raised…..he called to see the flop. A K-9-10 mixed flop fell. I bet he raised all-in…I had to muck. He showed pocket K’s and flopped a set of K’s. I got out of that painfully but at least I didn’t lose my whole stack. The guy next to him on my right was also about 4-bills….not too healthy. He was the talker of the table…Phil was his name. He and “Pauly” were obviously good friends who were sort of colluding (he says out loud “I’m not going to call his bet or raise his bet. HE’S MY BEST FRIEND”) Every time I said anything he had a story…you know the type..Anything you’ve done he’s done better. Maybe so but at least I got my health…I mean if this guy “Phil” and his buddy “Pauly” went to a buffet they would think about charging them extra or shut down. I stuck around until 3:30AM and ended up leaving with 205.00..Not bad considering I lost 75% of my buy-in when my J’s ran into K’s. I told Phil that I can’t stay up until 6:00AM anymore now that I have a 91/2 month old at home. Of course he added in the comment “What do I smell or something?” The guy next to him left at the same time…….if he smells as unhealthy as he looked he may have been on to something.

The next day (Monday) I went to the poker room to play the ACTII (NL STT). They started promptly at 10:00AM. I’m glad I got the Foxwoods tournament Poker monkey off my back. They really don’t take to all the questions if you don’t know what is going on. I asked the same questions as about 20 other people (I stuck around to find out why they were snippy with the questions). The ACTII quality of play went up dramatically from the ACTI…there must have been a bunch of direct buy-in for 150.00. I busted out in 5th when the guy next to me rivered a K to pair his K-7o. I had A-3o and was short-stacked so when I flopped a 3 I thought I was good. Most of the pros buy into the ACTIII’s for 1050.00 (NL MTT and top 5 get buy-in to the big one for 10,000.00). I got a chance to peak at the new area for the Poker Room and it’s going to be huge. I guess the WPT is going to brand the tourney sections or something like that. If Foxwoods grows anymore they’ll need their own friggin airport. Every time I come down here there is some new construction or expansion.

I was thinking of playing a local Charity Tourney tomorrow for a 100.00 entry fee but my recent diagnosis with Bronchitis will probably stop that. I chopped the last two paid spots last spring at that same place (Knights of Columbus) with some old guy who had a mountain of chips. Thanks daycare…I been fucking sick about 6 times since September. My daughter’s immune systems and mine should be superhuman strength by springtime.

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